Thursday, March 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024
71° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Restaurants & Bars

Science Project: Making Wine at Vintner’s Cellar in Plano, Stage 3

By Nancy Nichols |
Image
Right now my wine looks like many hangovers waiting to happen.
Right now my wine looks like many hangovers waiting to happen.

On May 1st, I started making a batch of wine with Vintner’s Cellar’s owner Larry McDowell. During our first meeting, I chose to make Viognier and we started the project by mixing the juice of the grapes with yeast.

Two weeks later, I returned to rack the wine–separating wine from its sediment, or lees, and transferring my creation into another glass container using a plastic siphon.

Wednesday, I headed up to Plano to get down and dirty with my wine—we added all kinds of nasty sounding chemicals to degass the plonk, I mean wine. You see, when yeast converts the sugar to alcohol, carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring byproduct. So we opened little packets of potassium sorbate, metabisulphite de potassium, and Isinglass and added them to the fermented juice to kill the remaining yeast and help the solids sink to the bottom.

We stirred the mixture until it looked like cloudy unfiltered apple juice and then recapped. In two weeks, I’ll returned to taste, tweak, and bottle my wine. If you’d like to follow along with pictures, they’re below. Chin-chin.










Science Project: Making Viognier, Stage 3

Related Articles

Image
Arts & Entertainment

Here’s Who Is Coming to Dallas This Weekend: March 28-31

It's going to be a gorgeous weekend. Pencil in some live music in between those egg hunts and brunches.
Image
Arts & Entertainment

Arlington Museum of Art Debuts Two Must-See Nature-Inspired Additions

The chill of the Arctic Circle and a futuristic digital archive mark the grand opening of the Arlington Museum of Art’s new location.
By Brett Grega
Image
Arts & Entertainment

An Award-Winning SXSW Short Gave a Dallas Filmmaker an Outlet for Her Grief

Sara Nimeh balances humor and poignancy in a coming-of-age drama inspired by her childhood memories.
By Todd Jorgenson
Advertisement